Table of Contents: March 2013

Dengue virus (DENV) NS5 protein inhibits type I interferon signaling by mediating the proteasomal degradation of STAT2, which results in enhanced viral replication and dissemination in the host. Morrison et al. show that DENV NS5 protein interacts with UBR4, a member of a family of predicted E3 ligases. This interaction is critical for DENV NS5-mediated STAT2 degradation, and consequently for DENV replication, in the presence of a competent type I interferon system. This picture shows the co-localization of DENV NS5 with UBR4.